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From
our Arieana Notebook: Wild Thyme with Raschida en-utero
was sold by the Crabbet Stud to Mr. Charrington in 1882. Originally named Wild Honey,
Raschida came back to Crabbet, and then in Autumn 1885 as a 2-year-old
once again changed ownership when she was purchased
by the Honourable Miss Ethelred Dillon who renamed her Raschida.
As an individual
Raschida was highly admired by
Spencer Borden. In his book The Arab Horse, written and published in 1906, he
writes this "...very remarkable mare.... has won nineteen jumping
prizes, besides one second prize in the hunter class at Blanford. She
carried 13 stone (182 lbs.) in the hunting field ten weeks before
foaling, and is the only pure Arab mare in the Hunters' Improvement
Book...." (p. 68) Borden also goes on to mention that there was
some belief by both Major Upton and Lady Anne Blunt that Raschida's
family strain, the Kehilan Ras el Fedawi, was also the family strain of
The
Darley Arabian, and as such Raschida is highly regarded and appreciated in the
pedigrees of Arieana Arabians for her ability to pass on both her speed and
athletic prowess.
To enhance Borden's information, Carol Mulder
also writes that Raschida
reportedly cleared jumps up to six feet carrying as much as 190 lbs.,
and once won a reserve in a class in which she cleared 5 feet 8 inches
four times. Mulder also mentions that Raschida was called "a
poet's dream" by an
unidentified admirer.
Raschida produced a
total of 13 registered foals but from
historical records available for our review, it appears most of her foals
were regretfully short-lived or did not breed on. And so we are most grateful that her daughter
*Nessa survived and was
imported to the United States by Spencer Borden and then later came to
be owned by
W.R. Brown (Maynesboro Stud), as it is
from Raschida's Maynesboro-bred granddaughter Tahdik
that we joyfully find the rare Raschida influence represented today
mid-pedigree in the bloodstock of Arieana's Arabians (see also the stallion
Tamarlane).
For further reading on Raschida and her life and that of her
foals, we recommend Carol June Woodbridge Mulder's
Imported Foundation Stock of North American Horses, Volume 2 (Revised Edition).
Borden Publishing Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1993.
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Raschida 